On December 30, Russia's Ministry of Justice published draft amendments proposing criminal penalties for unregistered cryptocurrency mining. The plan includes fines up to 2.5 million rubles, forced labor, or prison terms up to five years, with thresholds at 3.5 million and 13.5 million rubles. Mining was legalized in November 2024, with registries and monthly reporting already in place.

Investor flows favored XRP and Solana, which took in $70.2 million and $7.5 million last week, extending momentum since their US ETF launches in mid-October. In contrast, Bitcoin products saw $443 million in outflows and Ethereum lost $59.5 million, with overall digital asset funds posting $446 million in weekly redemptions.

Ripple's XRP has repeatedly failed to reclaim the $1.90 level, with fresh data showing intensified selling pressure reflected in rising inflows to centralized exchanges such as Binance. Since December 15, daily XRP deposits there have climbed to between 35 million and 116 million tokens, while spot XRP ETFs launched in November have accumulated about $1.14 billion in inflows and $1.25 billion in total assets as of December 26.

In 2025, meme coins and AI underperformed, with average YTD losses of -31.6% and -50.2%. DeFi fell -34.8% and DEX tokens declined -55.5%, while Layer 2s dropped -40.6%. In contrast, RWA gained +185.8% on average, driven by Keeta Network's 1,794.9% rally, and Layer 1s rose 80.3%.

On July 12, Pump.fun completed its PUMP token sale, raising $600 million and selling out in roughly 12 minutes. World Liberty Financial, a DeFi project backed by US President Donald Trump, has amassed around $550 million from its public sale. Other 2025 raises include Monad at $217 million and MegaETH at $78 million.

Wintermute founder and CEO Evgeny Gaevoy said the firm will vote against Aave's token alignment proposal, arguing that it lacks clear structure, governance, and value capture. The move adds to mounting resistance inside the AAVE DAO, where a Snapshot vote set to close on December 26 currently shows most participants rejecting or abstaining on the plan, which seeks to shift control of brand assets to tokenholders.

Trust Wallet confirmed a security breach in its browser extension version 2.68 after users reported rapid, unauthorized fund outflows. SlowMist linked the issue to a possible supply chain attack, while Changpeng "CZ" Zhao estimated losses at around $7 million and said Trust Wallet would reimburse affected users. The case highlights rising risks tied to browser-based wallets amid a broader surge in crypto thefts targeting personal wallets.

CryptoQuant reports Binance XRP futures open interest has dropped to about $453 million, the lowest since the end of 2024. OI previously topped $1 billion earlier and mid-2025 during speculative surges but has trended lower as leverage unwinds. XRP is near $1.87 after slipping below $2.00 and $1.90, with mixed on-chain signals.

Bitcoin failed to clear $90,000 this week and slipped below its 50-week SMA, a level analysts watch for trend shifts. Ali Martinez noted past breaches preceded average 54% declines, implying risk toward $40,000 if the level is not reclaimed. On-chain metrics signaled weak demand, and a brief Binance USD1-pair plunge to $24,111 was described as a liquidity event.